Everybody's wondered what it's like to be a taxi driver. Whether riding in the back of a cab contemplating your existence or watching a Robert De Niro movie, we've all contemplated how many passengers it takes to make a day's wages. Now, thanks to some clever code, you can watch it play out before your very eyes.

NYC Taxis: A Day in the Life is exactly what it sounds like: 24 hours' worth of data from 30 different cabs in New York City. That includes not only information about where passengers get picked up and dropped off but also stats on money collected broken down into fares, taxes, and surcharges. The data is crunched, and the trips are visualized on a very pretty map of the city, where you can can see just how much of the city you'll see in a single day behind the wheel of a yellow cab. It's more than you think. (It's a little dumb that the map doesn't show you an actual mileage count, though.)

The money part of the equation, however, is probably not. I watched the entirety of one driver's shift in which he or she appears to have driven for about 20 of the 24 hours and earned a total of $351.06 for 42 passengers, or about $334 before taxes. Once you subtract the cost of gas and consider the cost of maintenance, it's hard to imagine how this driver making much more than about $10 a hour. No wonder working for Uber looks so appealing, despite the company's inflated earnings estimates. [NYC Taxi]